Achieving the Victories in Our Lives

By Thomas Denegre

Reading from Genesis 3

Spies are the most dangerous people as they can possess the secret knowledge to win wars or destroy nations. Just as equal, God warns us in the Book of Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6)   Jesus also warned us that “the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come to bring life, and bring it abundantly.” (John 10:10) Our Lord so much desires us to have an abundant life because “the truth (Jesus) will set you free,” (John 8:32) from oppression, self-imprisonment, despair, falsehoods, and self-destruction.

Are you ready to accept knowledge to save you, and give you the victories in life you desire?

Considering this hidden knowledge, I learned the fall of man was due to his lack of knowledge in his strengths, his weaknesses, and the wiles of the enemy.  As a former U.S. Navy Commander and pilot we were required to study “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu.  Written over 2,000 years ago, the military strategist stated, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” So, lets begin by learning more about our own self to enable more victories in our life.

In the beginning God said, said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” (Gen 1:26). We know God has three attributes Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.  In the same way, man was given three attributes; spirit, soul, and body.  For the Apostle Paul states, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thes 5:23)

The spirit, soul, and body of man contain their own attributes. One must understand how these attributes work together along with their given priorities; otherwise we are doomed.  When God breathe life into Adam, he gave him spirit and life. Man’s spirit is eternal (yes, we are eternal entities) and designed to be in life-union with God.  Our spirit has three attributes; communion, intuition, and conscience. In addition, our soul has three attributes; mind, will, and emotions.

When Adam walked with God, he was walking spirit-to-spirit with Him. Adam lived in a state of innocence whereby his spirit controlled his soul and body for he knew no shame when he was naked.  Then the fall of man occurred. “So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” (Gen 3:6) Letting down their defenses, pride (self-centeredness) entered Adam and Eve which enabled their body and soul to dominate their spirit. They ran away from God as the death of their spiritual relationship with God brought fear and shame.  Sadly, they entered that lying business of political correctness by claiming to be victims and blaming someone else for their own responsibilities. Some things never change.

Today we are fortunate because we can have our sins forgiven when we run to the Lord with repentance and humility. Thankfully, our savior Jesus the Christ gave us this grace from Calvary.

Today’s world is no different, we see the enemy attacking our spirit, soul and body to severe our spiritual relationship with God.  If our spirit is not in life union with Jesus (John 15) then our lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6) will doom us to a sinners’ life. Here are just few ways the enemy can attack us.

·         Take this beauty cream and you’ll look ten years younger (vanity)

·         She is so much prettier than I am (envy)

·         I can’t take my eyes off that person at the gym (lust)

·         I make my decisions based on my conscious views and not by the Word of God (rebellion)

·         If they stand that way politically, then they must be evil (anger)

·         I want my pound of flesh.  I want my revenge. (unforgiveness)

·         By my title, (vice president, elite college graduate, doctor, software programmer) I am better than you (pride)

·         I trust my bank account not God (greed)

·         So, I weigh 300 pounds.  Food is my comfort (gluttony)

·         Hey, I deserve to live on welfare all my life. It’s not my fault. (sloth)

The natural order of life is for us to walk in life union with God and have His words live powerfully within our mind and spirit (John 15:7). By this manner, our spirit will control our soul which then controls our body and not vice versa. By living in the spirit, we can be assured of our victories through Jesus our Lord.

Paul the Apostle states this very well; “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (Rom. 8:5-6)

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Gal. 5:16) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Gal.5:22-25)

MAN’S SPIRITUAL ATTRIBUTES

·         INTUITION – Knowledge from the Holy Spirit - 1 Cor 2:11

·         COMMUNION Worship in the spirit - John 4:24

·         CONSCIENCE – Cleanses our consciences Heb – 9:14

MAN’S SOUL ATTRIBUTES

·         EMOTION - The believer and emotion – Matt 22; Affection – Ps 42:1; Desire – Psalm 73:25; A life of feeling – 2 Cor 5:7; The life of faith – Rom 1:17

·         MIND - The mind a battlefield – 2 Cor 10:5; The vulnerabilities of a passive mind – 2 Cor 11:3; The way of deliverance – Col 3: 9; The laws of the mind - Rom 8:6

·         WILL - A believer’s will – Luke 22:42; Passivity and its dangers – 2 Tim 1:7; The believer’s mistake – Hosea 4:6; The path to freedom – John 8:32

MAN’S BODY ATTRIBUTES

·         BODY - The believer and his body – 1 Cor 6:13; Sickness – Matt 8:17; God as the life of the body – John 10:10; Overcoming death – John 11:25-26

Faith That Moves Mountains

By Tom Denegre

Do you trust God to have faith in His Word?

Today’s scripture reading states that faith comes from hearing the Word of God. “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” Romans 10:17 (NIV)

Perhaps it not as simple as this scripture states.  For example;

·         Lucifer knew the Word of God.  Look how he turned out. 

·         Billy Graham acknowledged that perhaps only 10-15% of the people who attended his crusades accepted Jesus.  They too heard the Word of God. 

·         When Jesus shared the parable of the sower of the seeds, he too acknowledged that only one out of four people will hear the word of God and have faith in him.

·         Today there are so many rebellious Christians who advocate the murder of unborn children while aggressively promoting sexual immorality.  Clearly, their actions and beliefs are contrary to the Word of God.

·       All share a similar pattern, their unbelief is focused on talking to themselves and not God. Being filled with pride and self-centeredness they are unteachable; a self-destructive virtue. Unwilling to hear and accept the Word of God.

I came across The Passion Translation, and this version states, “Faith, then, is birthed in a heart that responds to God’s anointed utterance of the Anointed One.” Romans 10:17 (TPT)

Well isn’t that a much different translation! Faith comes from hearing God’s Word while opening your heart to it. The reason Jesus scorned the Pharisees, is because intellectually they knew the Word of God, but it didn’t live in their hearts.  Or, another way of looking at it, the Pharisees acknowledged God from their soul (mind, emotions, will), but not from their spirit (Communion with God John 4:24, Intuition or spirit to spirit communications with God 1 Cor 2:11, and Conscience with God Hebrews 9;14).

I learned from experience that I must trust someone to believe in them.  Without trust I will have doubt and unbelief.  Equally important, to have a relationship with a person comes from the heart and not from the intellect. 

Therefore, by trusting completely in God’s Word I accept the large faith that God’s promises and provisions can be depended upon.  Jesus once said, “If you obey my commands, you’ll live in my love.” John 15:10.

To obey I must trust.

Knowing that I am radically loved by God, because he died for my sins, I can trust his word into my heart. By living in life union with Jesus I discovered that his love will nourish and empower my faith.  More so, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, will infuse the faith, knowledge, revelations, and love that I will need to believe in the unseen.  So, Jesus encourages all of us to open our hearts and our mind to accept and taste His Words.   Then we will have the faith to move mountains!

Mark 12:28-34

Love God with Your Soul

This Sunday we revisit a scripture reading. Revisiting suggests it must be extremely important. You decide.

When Jesus was asked the question in Mark 12 regarding the most important commandment, his response was this: 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” 

Let’s focus on the soul for a time.

Thinking deeply about what “the soul” feels is personal. Our soul is known to no one but our Lord. It’s like a concept rather than a thing. Something that is with us and guides us, yet we have no visual reference for it.

Our heart pumps to maintain our earthly life, and though we refer to having a broken heart when we experience emotional trials, is it not truly our soul that is affected. Then perhaps it is our soul that guides our heart to continue pumping or to give in, during our last moments.

Dictionary.com defines the soul as follows: noun: the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separate in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part.

Might it be, that our true heart (not physical heart), and our soul are one in the same?

Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

May we closely guard our heart/soul and praise God in all seasons.

“Bless the Lord O my soul, O, O, O my soul. Worship His Holy name. Sing like never before, O, my soul. Worship His Holy name.”

Listen to Matt Redman: 
10,000 Reasons